Subject Outline: IACT441 IT Research Methodology (SISAT version)

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SISAT

School of Information Systems and Technology

Faculty of Informatics

Subject Outline

IACT441- IT Research Methodology

Autumn Session 2007

Head of School –Associate Professor Peter Hyland, Student Resource Centre, Tel: (02) 4221 3606

General Information

Subject Co ordinator/Lecturer	Associate Professor Peter Hyland
Telephone Number:	4221 4038
Email:	phyland@uow.edu.au
Location:	39.150F

Assoc Prof Hyland’s Consultation Times During Session

Day	Time
Tuesday	10.30am - 12.30pm
Wednesday	10.30am – 12.30pm

Subject Organisation

Session:	Autumn and Spring Session, Wollongong Campus
Credit Points	6 credit points
Contact hours per week:	2 hr lecture
Lecture Times & Location for Autumn:	Lecture Monday 16.30 – 18.30, 19.1001
Lecture Times & Location for Spring:	Lecture Tuesday 8.30 – 10.30, 19.1098
Tutorial Day, Time and Location can be found at:	http://www.uow.edu.au/student/sols/timetables/index.html

Students doing a BInfoTech Honours or a BCompSc Honours will attend the first few weeks of the lecture schedule below. This provides both groups with a broad overview of the research process and fundamental research concepts.

Students who have selected a research topic with an IT focus will find that the remainder of the lecture schedule and assessment tasks set out below provide a good introduction to research methods for them. Students whose project is an IT project will be required to complete the program set out in this subject outline. However, students who are doing a BCompSc Honours or who have selected a research topic with a strong computer science focus will find parts of the following lecture schedule and assessment task less relevant to their projects. Consequently, within the first four weeks of the semester, students doing a BInfoTech Honours must reach an agreement with their supervisor about which research methods program is more appropriate for their project. BInfoTech students whose project is clearly a computer science project will be required to complete the computer science research methods program and NOT do the remainder of the program set out in this subject outline. Details of this other program will be presented during the first lecture and, briefly, in subsequent lectures. BInfoTech students doing the computer science research program will be given a cumulative mark for the assessment tasks in that program and that mark will be recorded as their mark for IACT441.

Apart from this variation in the research methods program, all students enrolled in the BInfoTech Honours program will be subject to the same course and assessment requirements. See the BInfoTech Honours handbook for more details.

Students should check the subject’s web site regularly as important information, including details of unavoidable changes in assessment requirements will be posted from time to time. Any information posted to the web site is deemed to have been notified to all students.

Content

This subject covers the purpose of research, formulating a research question, conducting a literature review and writing a research proposal. Students will learn how to design an appropriate research plan. Requirements for scholarly writing will also be discussed and the process of undertaking a research project will be analysed.

Objectives

Upon completion of the subject the student will be able to:

Demonstrate skills necessary to undertake scholarly research through the conduct of a critical literature review
Demonstrate written communication skill through the production of a literature review report
Demonstrate oral communication skill through presentation of research seminars
Demonstrate problem solving skills and idea development techniques, literature review and research question identification
Demonstrate an ability to conduct independent research of new topics through the presentation of research seminar on contemporary information systems or information technology issues

Attendance Requirements

It is the responsibility of students to attend all lectures/tutorials/labs/seminars/practical work for subjects for which you are enrolled.

Attendance and participation in lectures, tutorials and web-mediated activities is a requirement for the successful completion of this course. Failure to do so may result in a fail grade being recorded. A good indicator of satisfactory attendance is approximately 80% of the allocated contact hours. Attendance per se is not an assessable component of the course.

It should be noted that according to Course Rule 003{Interpretation Point 2 (t)} each credit point for a single session subject has the value of about two hours per week including class attendance. Therefore, the amount of time spent on each 6 credit point subject should be at least 12 hours per week, which includes lectures/tutorials/labs etc

Satisfactory attendance is deemed to be attendance at approximately 80%* of the allocated contact hours. Attendance rolls may be kept for lectures. If you are present for less than 80%* you need to apply for special consideration, otherwise a fail grade may be recorded.

Lecture schedule:

The subject coordinator may invite guest speakers to present specialised topics as part of the lecture schedule. To accommodate these guest speakers and other unforeseen events, the lecture schedule below may change from time to time. Students will be notified of any such changes either on the UOW e-Learning site for this subject, in tutorials or both.

Week	Date	Topic	Comments
1	26 Feb	Introduction to subject Research as a process & annotated bibliography
2	5 Mar	Research Concepts & Library Resources
3	12 Mar	Research Concepts & Literature Review - Structure
4	19 Mar	Ethics	Annotated Bibliography
5	26 Mar	Methods 1
6	2 Apr	Methods 2	Research Proposal Due
		R e c e sS: 9 April - 13 April
7	16 Apr	Methods 3
8	23 Apr	Literature Review - Peer review	Literature Review Due
9	30 Apr	Writing up your thesis	Methodology Due
10	7 May	Presentation Skills
11	14 May	First Student Presentations - Your Project to-date	Presentations commence
12	21 May	Second Student Presentations - Your Project to-date	Paper review
13	28 May	Final Student presentations & Summing Up	Final submission due
		STUDY RECESS: 4 June – 8 June

Method of Presentation

A series of lectures/workshops will be conducted on research methodology. An outline of topics covered is presented below including information relating to assessment. Further details will be provided in tutorials and on the UOW e-Learning site for this subject.

Subject Materials

Recommended Reading:

Robert Y. Cavanna; Brian L. Delahaye; Uma Sekaran. Applied business research: qualitative and quantitative methods. Australian edition. Milton, Qld.: John Wiley, 2001.

David Evans. How to write a better thesis or report. Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1995.

These readings/references are recommended only and are not intended to be an exhaustive list. Students are encouraged to use the library catalogue and databases to locate additional readings

Assessment

This subject has the following assessment components.

Assessment Items & Format	Percentage of Final Mark	Due Date
1.Annotated Bibliography	10%	19 March
2 Research Proposal (Introduction)	20%	2 April
3 Literature Review	20%	23 April
4 Methodology	20%	30 April
5 Student presentation	10%	14 May – 28 May
6 Research Paper Review	10%	21 May
7. Final submission - Introduction (NOT a research proposal) - Literature Review - Methodology Chapter - Bibliography	10%	28 May*

* See the note on Timing of Assessment Tasks below

Notes on Assessment

This subject is intended to assist with the writing of the first three chapters of IACT450 Research Reports. By concurrently working on the content (product) as well as the process, it is hoped that the underlying research methodologies will become apparent to each student either directly (by experience) or indirectly (by the lectures and presentations).

Detailed requirements for each individual assessment task will be given during the weekly lecture/workshop series and will be posted on UOW e-Learning. The following general requirements apply to all assessment tasks:

· Task 2, 3 4 and 7 should be completed using the BInfoTech Honours Report guidelines

· One printed copy of each assessment task is to be submitted to the subject co-coordinator, a second should be given to your Honours Report Supervisor. Electronic submission is not a suitable means of submission unless prior permission has been given by the subject co-coordinator

· Penalties will apply to all late work, except if special consideration is deemed necessary or unless an extension has been granted by the subject co-coordinator. Requests for extensions should be emailed to the subject co-coordinator, prior to the due date.

· See Honours handbook for further details of Assessment procedures.

Final Submission: The requirements for the Final Submission are that it should contain the following:

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chapter 2- Literature Review

Chapter 3 - Research Method/Design

Bibliography

The final submission is a lengthy and complex document. Students need to be aware that it will take a significant time to prepare. However, the report will be based on assessment items 2,3, and 4 and the feedback received on those items; so, in the vast majority of cases, students will be revising, rather than re-writing, the final submission.

Student presentation: Each student is required to present a seminar on his or her research project. These student seminars will take place in weeks 11, 12 and 13, depending on the number of research projects. Students will be allocated a week during which they must present their seminar; students will be notified of the date of their presentation within the first 4 weeks of semester, giving all students adequate time to prepare their seminars.

Research paper review: Students will be given one research paper and will be asked to write a critical review of the research presented in that paper, as they would if reviewing for a conference or journal.

Research Seminars are held regularly throughout the session by the school (The Colloquium) and by individual research groups. It would be very useful for students to attend some of these seminars both to gain an understanding of the research process and, potentially, to gather info about their own research project.

Timing of assessment tasks: For a significant proportion of the students, two or three of the final assessment tasks will be due within a week. Students must make sure they manage their time well to ensure that they can meet these deadlines. Students are strongly advised to begin work on these tasks as early as possible. At the discretion of the subject co-coordinator, the due date for one or both of these tasks may be extended for all students. If this occurs, all students will be notified beforehand

Additional Information

Students must refer to the Faculty Handbook or online references which contains a range of policies on educational issues and student matters.

Please note that if this is your last session and you are granted a significant extension to the Final Submission, be aware that your results may not be processed in time to meet the graduation deadline.

Plagiarism

When you submit an assessment task, you are declaring the following

1. It is your own work and you did not collaborate with or copy from others.

2. You have read and understand your responsibilities under the University of Wollongong's policy on plagiarism.

3. You have not plagiarised from published work (including the internet). Where you have used the work from others, you have referenced it in the text and provided a reference list at the end ot the assignment.

4. Plagiarism will not be tolerated.

5. Students are responsible for submitting original work for assessment, without plagiarising or cheating, abiding by the University’s policies on Plagiarism as set out in the Calendar under University Policies, and in Faculty handbooks and subject guides. Plagiarism has led to the expulsion from the University.

This outline should be read in conjunction with the following documents:

Code of Practice - Teaching and Assessment

http://www.uow.edu.au/handbook/codesofprac/teaching_code.html

Key Dates

http://www.uow.edu.au/student/dates.html

Code of Practice - Students

http://www.uow.edu.au/handbook/codesofprac/cop_students.html

Information Literacies Introduction Program

http://www.library.uow.edu.au/helptraining/workshops/ilip/

Acknowledgement Practice Plagiarism will not be tolerated

http://www.uow.edu.au/handbook/courserules/plagiarism.html

Student Academic Grievance Policy